


Harpaxophilia

by Hattedhedgehog, Thorinsmut



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Aftercare, Bondage, Complete, Cuddling, D/s themes, Dirty Talk, Established Relationship, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Harpaxophilia, Insults, Kink Negotiation, Kissing, Knife Play, M/M, Mindfuck, Mocking, Non-Penetrative Sex, Oral Sex, PTSD, Piercings, Porn Without Plot, Premature Ejaculation, Sub!Dwalin, Subspace, Theft, Threats, Trans Character, Well Negotiated Kink, cis man!Dwalin, consensual rape play, dom!Nori, dwalin's poor confused boner, mild pain play, post-scene processing, rape fantasies, roleplaying, sex fantasies, trans man!Nori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2018-12-25 10:31:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12034053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hattedhedgehog/pseuds/Hattedhedgehog, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/pseuds/Thorinsmut
Summary: Harpaxophilia - the sexual attraction to being the victim of robbery.The first time they met, Nori was robbing Dwalin.Many years later, when they are happily married in Erebor, Dwalin confesses how hot he found it.Nori comes up with the perfect plan to take very good care of Dwalin, and satisfy all his desires.Writing by Thorinsmut. Art by Hattedhedgehog





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome, friends, to my latest fic! I am so proud to bring you this story, and that I got to work with the inimitable Hattie! It was past time for the two of us to do a colab together.
> 
> I also owe a debt of gratitude to asparklethatisblue for supplying the original concept, and allowing Hattie and I to grab it with our queer little hands and run.
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this story, and Hattie's art is always great, so I hope you all enjoy this fic as much as I have!  
> Please enjoy!  
> <3  
> TS

The first time Dwalin saw Nori, he was being robbed.

The night was quiet, and Dwalin didn't know what woke him. An unfamiliar sound, maybe, or just the _feel_ of someone else in his room when no one should be, and opened his bleary eyes to see a strange dwarf. They were hardly more than a shadow, and Dwalin blinked at them in confusion. Only when the light from the street lamp outside the window fell on a narrow face with a strong handsome nose, when Dwalin saw a faint smile cross thin lips and the flash of pale fingers picking Dwalin's purse from his dresser without the faintest jingle of the coins and aglets within, did he realize the stranger was not a dream.

They were a thief, and Dwalin was well trained by his time in the army. He could wake fast and fully, prepared to do violence. He sprang from the bed with a roar, axe in his hands. He had not shaken the habit of sleeping with one, not yet, not after the years of warfare culminating in the horror of Azanulbizar. Instincts that had kept him alive were not so easily shaken.

The thief was fast. Dwalin swung his axe—broadside, he was no killer of dwarves even if they were thieves—but the thief was already out of range. In three steps they were across the room. Dwalin covered the same distance in two, but the advantage of his longer stride did him no good when the thief had already leapt out the window.

Dwalin hesitated for a precious handful of seconds before he followed. He was a dwarf, Mahal built him more than strong enough to take a harder fall, but it warred against his very nature to voluntarily throw himself into the air.

Those seconds were too long. There was no sign of the thief when Dwalin crashed to the ground.

"Face me, Thief!" Dwalin roared. He ran down the street, checked the alleyways, but the thief was gone. They had disappeared into thin air. Dwalin returned the way he'd come, prepared to search down the street the other way, only to find that his bellowing had roused his family. His mother Lawara and brother Balin were outside, and with both of them catching his arms to guide him gently back into the house he could do nothing but obey.

They did not believe him. Not at first. Balin had a knowing look in his eye, Lawara a tremble to her lips, as they tried to tell him it had been a dream. Just a battle dream. Dwalin _had_ those, he knew those. If it had been one of those, it would have been orcs or goblins in his room in the dark, rather than a dwarf thief.

It looked bad: Dwalin running through the streets barefoot in his sleep pants, axe in hand, fighting shadows. It looked like a battle dream to his family, but Dwalin knew it wasn't. Only when even in the light of day no one could find the purse the thief stole did they start to, and more a few days later when some of the family's silver was found to be missing.

In those days Dwalin had time to mourn and rage against the loss of the aglets in his purse, plain silver infinitely more precious than gold or jewels. He had time to calm down, and wonder how desperate a dwarf must be to risk stealing into the room of a light-sleeping warrior. Were things so bad as that in Ered Luin?

He had time to be extremely confused when a courier left a small unmarked package before the door of his family's apartments, only to find the stolen aglets inside—without a note or any sort of explanation. Confused, but overwhelmingly grateful. The purse and the coin he could replace, but Fundin's aglets—taken from his beard in mourning before he was given to fire because there were far too many dead to give them to stone—he could not. Dwalin strung the aglets on a thong of leather to wear close to his heart, rather than trusting them to a purse that could be so easily stolen.

All this, there would be time for. That first night Lawara brewed him a cup of tea to help him sleep, with chamomile and catnip and a few bitter hops, sweetened with honey to make it palatable. Balin barred the window whose shutters Dwalin had left open for the air, and then came to his bed to sleep back-to-back with him as they had in army camps for safety. It was as much as he did for Balin, when his brother dreamed of fire and war.

It did feel good to have Balin at his back, it felt safe, but Dwalin could not easily sleep again. The scenario replayed in his mind, over and over again. A thief in his rooms. A thief in his belongings, _taking_ whatever they wanted, and Dwalin shivered through with a flash of heat. His sleep pants were loose, but tightening across the front as his hammer began to grow hot and heavy.

That was… that was wrong. Ridiculous. Dwalin was not aroused by being robbed… was he? Certainly the thief had been attractive, what little Dwalin had glimpsed of them, if a little thin for true beauty. He would not forget the shape of their nose, or the peaks of their voluminous hair. Still, that was not enough. There were plenty of attractive dwarves out there, and few of them made Dwalin's blood run hot like this.

He had been asleep, unknowing, vulnerable, and the thief came into his space. They could have done _anything_ , and Dwalin scoffed at the thought even as he had it. Even as it made his hammer twitch between his legs. He'd woken up, hadn't he? He'd frightened them off, even without being touched, and he'd have done worse if they were in range. He was armed and dangerous, the strongest of warriors, and yet that strange feeling of vulnerability curled through him again.

Dwalin's hand tightened on the handle of his axe, even as he ached to reach between his legs and stroke himself instead. He couldn't, not with Balin at his back. There was little privacy in army camps, everyone always knew what (or who) everyone else was doing, but that was a step too far. Dwalin was a grown dwarf, and he could control himself for one night.

Difficult as it was; as nonsensically aroused as he became.

Dwalin slept eventually, and he tried to brush it off and forget. In the following years he tried not to think too deeply about how often when he pleasured himself it was the fantasy of a thief using him that brought him off. He'd gotten a matter-of-fact sort of education on these matters, coming of age among soldiers as he had. He knew that the fantasy of being plundered, overpowered and taken, was not terribly uncommon and meant nothing about what a dwarf truly desired to have happen. He'd simply thought he was immune to such.

It was ridiculous, the thought of _him_ overpowered by a little thief. And yet, his libido latched on to the idea and that feeling of vulnerability and would not let go. It did not have to mean anything, and so Dwalin didn't let it. Certainly he chased the rumor of a thief, but only as part of his duty as he guarded caravans in the Blue Mountains and beyond. The thief became well-known: russet hair in big peaks, small and sly, quick with a knife, never caught, and never taking anything of high sentimental value or that would _ruin_ who they'd stolen it from.

If Dwalin ever caught up with the thief, he'd do nothing but drag them to the nearest jail—but in the meanwhile, a little fantasy never hurt anyone. It was a private business between himself and his right hand, and nobody had to know about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a link to the art for this chapter:
> 
> http://hattedhedgehog.tumblr.com/post/165485497302/only-when-the-light-from-the-street-lamp-outside


	2. Fantasies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many years later, when they are happily married in Erebor, Dwalin confesses to Nori how hot he found their first meeting.

Erebor prospered, once again the strongest of dwarf kingdoms. Sometimes it still seemed like a dream to Dwalin. The kingdom their people had been driven from when Dwalin was no more than a child was his home again, and perhaps strangest of all, he was married to a mostly-reformed thief. Nori, the very same thief who'd once broken into Dwalin's rooms and stolen his purse in the night, and so much more than just a thief. He put his ill-gotten skills to an honorable use now, protecting Erebor.

They could laugh together about how at odds they'd once been. Dwalin was not sure he'd ever laughed as much as he did with Nori. The winter evening was cold, but the fire in their apartment's hearth was warm—as were the warg furs and cushions they'd built a nest of in front of it.

Dwalin held Nori close in his arms, his back against Dwalin's front. He nuzzled aside Nori's soft fluffy hair to press a kiss to his neck, just because they were close and comfortable, just because he could.

Nori sighed, melting against him, and then chuckled. "Such a big softie. Who'd have thought?"

Dwalin made an agreeing sound, which was enough for Nori to continue.

"I about pissed myself the first time we met, you know?" he said, grin in his voice. "Massive warrior exploding out of bed _already holding an axe_! Thought I was done for, for sure."

"The war was still fresh," Dwalin defended, though Nori already knew that. They'd spoken about it before—both laughing as Nori made sure Dwalin's axes wouldn't be jealous that Nori was sharing Dwalin's bed instead.

Nori's eyes sparkled when he turned his head just enough to steal a lop-sided kiss from Dwalin. "You actually jumped out the window after me. That _never_ happens. My heart didn't stop racing for a week!"

"How did you disappear?" Dwalin asked. In all the intervening years, he'd never figured that bit out. Nori was good, but he wasn't magic. "You were gone when I landed."

Nori snorted a short laugh through his nose, the sort of sound he made when he was proud of himself but trying not to show it. "Inside the house."

"No." Dwalin turned Nori's face, trying to see a lie there, and laughing helplessly at the wicked glee he saw on Nori's face instead. "I saw you jump!"

"Oh, I did," Nori agreed, smug. "Jumped _out_ your window, and then back _in_ the downstairs one. I was out your back door running by the time you started shouting for me."

Dwalin laughed again, giving Nori a squeeze. "Risky," he said.

"Better than facing you head on!" Nori defended. "I thought about that night a lot, you know? I was a lot more careful after that. And kept as far away from you as possible!"

They'd talked about that before, too. About how terrified of Dwalin Nori had been at the start of the quest, though he'd put on a good enough show of being cocky no one had guessed.

"I… thought about it too," Dwalin confessed, feeling blood rushing to his face and glad Nori was facing away and couldn't see. This, they hadn't spoken of at all yet.

"Yeah?" Nori asked lightly. "Planning how to catch me next time?"

"No!" Dwalin said, too fast and emphatic, and bit his tongue. His whole body went hot with embarrassment. He'd never told anyone about the ridiculous fantasy, not even Nori in all their time together. Even knowing Nori now, even trusting him and knowing he would never force or harm anyone, Dwalin still used the thought when he was pleasuring himself on his own.

His hammer hardened in his pants at the thought, well trained to respond to it over the years, and Nori could not help but feel it pressing against the small of his back. He made a curious sound, rubbing against it, and Dwalin forced his mouth to come unstuck to explain. This was _Nori_ , after all. His husband. There was nothing he couldn't tell Nori, nothing he wouldn't trust him with.

"I think about it when I…" He briefly let go of Nori's waist to mime a wanking motion, then wrapped both arms around Nori even tighter and hid his face in Nori's hair. "Often. Very often."

"Oooh," Nori purred, clearly pleased. He squirmed in Dwalin's arms, rubbing himself against Dwalin's still-hardening hammer. "Affected you that much, did I? How did it go in your mind?" he asked. He was terribly good at finding Dwalin's pleasures, at taking him apart and leaving him breathless, whether it was with his words or those obscenely clever hands. "Would you catch me, then? Pin me down and take from me like I took from you?"

"No!" Dwalin protested again. The thought of Nori being overpowered and forced was sickening, wrong, and Dwalin's erection flagged. It was the polar opposite of anything that appealed to him.

Nori twisted out of Dwalin's hold, instead straddling him in the furs and cushions. His eyes were bright and curious, fingers gentle as they pet Dwalin's flaming cheeks. "What about it _did_ you like, then?" he asked.

Dwalin settled his hands on Nori's hips, gaze on Nori's belt buckle instead of trying to make eye contact. "I felt… helpless? I know it's ridiculous. I'm…" He gestured to himself, his size, his strength. "I'd never felt like that. Maker's hammers, I slept with an _axe_ in my bed but I still felt helpless." Dwalin's tongue felt awkward, his body all the wrong shapes like an adolescent who hadn't grown into himself yet. "I couldn't have stopped you. You came in when I was sleeping, and you could have… you could have taken anything you wanted. Done _anything_. And I know you couldn't really, and you wouldn't, and I never really wanted you or anyone to rob me or… or anything. But the thought of it…" Dwalin shook his head, breaking off.

Nori made an understanding sound, leaning forward to press a kiss to Dwalin's brow. The motion shifted him in Dwalin's lap, rubbing the heat of his groin against Dwalin's aching-hard hammer. Dwalin groaned, rutting up against him. The squirming embarrassment in his belly certainly wasn't discouraging his lust.

"Full of surprises," Nori commented, the tone of his voice could only be praise. "I never pictured you for the type. Makes sense, though."

"It does?" Dwalin asked, far too desperate. He managed to look up to Nori's face, and Nori's eyes were crinkled up in a smile.

Nori kissed Dwalin gently. "Sure it does," he promised. "That kind of fantasy; it takes something strange or scary, and makes it understandable. Safe, if you're playing it out by yourself or with someone you can trust. You'd be surprised how many thieves want to play captured-by-the-guard in bed."

That was good to hear. Trust Nori to understand, to accept Dwalin's most embarrassing fantasy without judgement, and Dwalin's whole body went warm. His heart was so full of love for his husband he could not begin to contain it. He kissed Nori, deep and desperate like he could communicate some of that love in a language better than words.

Nori moaned against Dwalin's lips, and for a short while they had no need for speech. They only needed their bodies to move together, their hands to touch each other, their clothes to get out of the way to give them more skin contact.

"Did you do that?" Dwalin asked, a whisper against Nori's neck. "Play at being captured?" He followed with a firm bite to the muscle between Nori's neck and shoulder, and Nori gave a fluttering moan, entire body tensing against Dwalin's.

"A- a few times," he finally answered. "Turns out I like being the guard better."

"You, a guard?" Dwalin couldn't help scoffing. " _You_?"

Nori bit his lip in retaliation, teeth just a shade too sharp. His clever fingers found one of Dwalin's nipples to tease at the gold ring through it, and Dwalin's throat made a very loud groan with no permission from him.

"I enjoy having a big dwarf at my mercy," Nori purred, grinding down on Dwalin's hammer again. Really the only thing to do, at that point, was to get the last of their clothes off so they could be as close as possible. Nori laughed as Dwalin lifted him to pull his smalls off. "Like that thought, do you?"

"...jealous," Dwalin answered. He threw Nori's smalls and his own trousers out of their cozy nest and pulled Nori close to rut against him.

"Wish it was you?" Nori asked, and Dwalin could only nod. He was beyond coherent conversation, unlike Nori would could talk right until the moments before his climax.

Nori's forge was hot and slick, and he rubbed it up and down the ladder of piercings that decorated the underside of Dwalin's hammer. Nori's hammer—gorgeous little jeweler's hammer for the finest and most delicate work—was a firmer nub amidst his softness. Dwalin could feel it rubbing up and down the underside of his hammer, as Nori frotted against him in search of pleasure. Nori's hand closed lightly around Dwalin's hammer, and he leaned back a bit to watch as he stroked it in time with his grinding.

Nori liked that, Dwalin knew—liked the visual to go with the pleasure, as though Dwalin's big hammer were growing from his own flesh, even if it was backward to him.

Dwalin couldn't complain about the visual himself, watching Nori above him. The low light of the fire lit him in pinks and reds; rose quartz on his pale skin and coral highlights in his voluminous hair and beard and the thick V of hair down his chest and belly.

Nori threw his head back with a moan, throat bared to Dwalin, and Dwalin pushed himself up on one elbow to kiss and bite it. He squeezed Nori's hip, the flexing muscles of his arse, rubbed up and down his back, and drank in every shudder and moan as Nori pleasured himself on his hammer.

"Oh, Dwalin," Nori gasped. His hand tightened on Dwalin's hammer, just holding him in place, now, as he chased down what he needed. His legs were shaking, on the cusp of orgasm. "Just. Like. That." he ground out, and Dwalin bit down hard on his neck.

Nori cried out, sharp little gasps as he reached climax and rode through it, and then collapsed boneless and trembling against Dwalin's chest.

Dwalin wrapped both arms around Nori tight and held him as he came back down. "How did I get so lucky?" he murmured into Nori's soft hair.

Nori laughed and bit Dwalin's pec. "I haven't even gotten you off yet."

"Even so," Dwalin defended. "You are the richest treasure, the finest thing in my life…"

Nori shut Dwalin up by kissing him. "Old sap," he accused in a whisper against Dwalin's lips, but his cheeks were rosy and his eyes sparkling.

The space between their bodies was drenched in Nori's slickness when he began to grind his hammer against Dwalin's again. Dwalin would never grow tired of the decadent pleasure of it. "Ready for another?" he asked.

"If you can last that long," Nori challenged.

Dwalin growled, both to accept the dare and to make Nori shiver through. He stroked Nori's back, his ribs, and then toward his chest. Nori liked attention there sometimes, but not this time. The brief wrinkling of his nose and the faint shake of his head warned Dwalin off before he got too close. Still, there were a lot of ways Dwalin knew how to give Nori pleasure without touching his chest.

His ears, for example. Dwalin could nuzzle past his increasingly-messy hair and take an earlobe between his teeth, exhale hot breaths against the shell of his ear. Dwalin could squeeze Nori's arsecheek in one hand, then delve between his legs to slick his fingertips and slide them up his crease to circle smooth and slow on the tightly furled muscle and tender nerve endings of his rear entrance.

Dwalin knew how to bring Nori pleasure, he'd studied it most attentively. He would have won, he would have breathed carefully and kept a firm rein on his own pleasure and made sure Nori had a second climax before he spent, but Nori did not play fair. He knew just how to squeeze and play with the piercings on Dwalin's hammer, just how to stroke him, and while Dwalin was too far gone for words he could _still keep talking_.

"I like you under me," Nori groaned. "Big bad warrior, all mine. All for me. You'd let a thief have you. Tie you up and use you however he liked. Fuck your arse or your mouth, or ride this gorgeous cock until he was done—and leave you wanting. Leave you tied and messy, so those who found you would know how you'd been used and how you _liked_ it."

Nori's hand squeezed tight on the tip of Dwalin's hammer, almost painful. Dwalin hissed through his teeth as he tried in vain to hold back, and tumbled over the edge of climax. Nori laughed and flopped off to the side of Dwalin in the furs and cushions to watch him spend all over his belly.

"Unfair," Dwalin protested, when he could piece words together again. Nori just laughed, absolutely unrepentant. Dwalin fumbled around in the cushions until Nori took mercy on him and pointed out where Dwalin's undershirt had gotten to. Dwalin wiped his belly clean with it and tossed it out of the cushion nest to be dealt with later.

What mattered most right now was Nori, flushed and gorgeous at Dwalin's side, his hammer ruddy and firm above his folds, aching for another climax. Dwalin pulled Nori close to cuddle and stroked it slick and gentle with just his thumb and first two fingers. Nori squirmed and bucked his pleasure in Dwalin's arms, and then they lay together soft and warm with the low crackling of the fire and their breaths the only sound.

Deep beneath Erebor's strong stone, in a comfortable nest before a warm fire, with his husband in his arms, was the best place Dwalin had ever been. It was his everyday life now and not a dream.

Nori levered himself up on one elbow, pulling away slightly, before Dwalin could fall asleep. Dwalin made a questioning sound as he shook himself to full wakefulness.

"Would you _want_ to do that?" Nori asked. "Play out thief and robbed? Or is it better staying dirty talk and fantasy?"

Dwalin swallowed hard. He hadn't really considered that it could become real some day. It had been a fantasy for so long, and nothing more than that, but with Nori? Oh, with Nori it could be so much more.

"Aye," Dwalin managed, voice thick. "Aye, with you I would." And then, quiet and heartfelt, "Please." A game of being thief and guard wasn't exactly the same as what Dwalin wanted, but Nori had experience with that and it wouldn't be _so_ different. Nori was adaptable. He knew how to play at being in _control_ , and it could be just what Dwalin needed.

Nori grinned, squirming a bit. "Good," he purred, like he was the one being granted a great favor. "How would you want it?" he asked. "Like how I was saying? Tie you up and take my pleasure?"

Dwalin nodded, fresh heat pooling in his belly at the thought. "Don't… don't leave me wanting, though?" he requested. That didn't sound like fun.

"Getting you off's easy enough," Nori granted, the twist of his smirk teasing Dwalin for having finished before him. "I could threaten you, if you like?" he offered. "Rough you up? Do you want scratches and bruises to remember it by?"

Dwalin pondered that. A warrior's life came with its share of scrapes and bruises. Dwalin was familiar with them, but they'd never really been more than pain to work through. They came with the territory, and were nothing he sought out. There was a satisfaction, sometimes, with feeling his body's strength and limits and in the soreness that came from finding those limits, but it had never been something he'd thought to experience from coupling.

"I don't know," Dwalin finally admitted. "It might be all right if it hurts some in the moment? Being threatened while I'm at your mercy would be—" he nodded hard, a deep shuddering breath the only conclusion he was capable of giving the sentence.

"Then we won't do anything lasting," Nori said easily. His clever fingers traced the grain of a whorl of hair on Dwalin's chest, gentle closeness even while they discussed playing out Dwalin's strangest and strongest fantasy. "No bruises this first time, just threats. We can take it further another time, if you like. I could use a blunted knife on you? Wouldn't break the skin even if I pushed hard but it feels—" he gave a delicious shiver, turning the sharp edge of his nail against Dwalin's skin to scrape it slow and firm. " _Terrifying_. I love doing that."

Dwalin had never considered that before. Blades had never featured in his fantasy, and yet the thought of it—of being held at knifepoint while the thief used him—sent an embarrassing surge of lust and shame through him. With Nori, whom he could trust with his life, and a blunted blade, Dwalin could try that out.

"Aye, if you like," he agreed.

Nori flashed his teeth triumphantly. It was almost terrifying in itself, how eager Nori looked. He sobered quickly, though, twisting a bit of Dwalin's wiry beard through his fingers to give it a light tug. "One last question. Will you want to tell me—beg me—to stop, and have me keep going? 'Cause we can do that, but we'd have to come up with something else that _did_ mean for us to stop. I wouldn't want to force you, keep going if you're not enjoying it."

"Hm." Dwalin mulled it over carefully. He didn't usually tell the thief in his fantasy to stop, mostly just focused on what they did to him and not on what _he_ might be doing or saying in response. It would be different playing it out with another dwarf, though. "Maybe? I could tap out, like in grappling?" He tapped Nori's hip twice in demonstration. That was simple, and a completely ingrained reflex for Dwalin.

"You could, you could," Nori agreed. "But if I've got both your hands tied?"

"Oh." Dwalin hadn't thought of that. He was lucky he was planning this with Nori, who already knew how to play these kind of games.

"Doesn't have to be complicated," Nori continued. "We could _say_ 'tap out'? Or… heh, that would work… each other's names. If we're having fun, I'll be a thief and you can be the nob I'm robbing. But if I say Dwalin, or you say Nori, then we're ourselves and not playing anymore. Yeah? Lots of ways to say stop, if you don't want 'no' and 'stop' to mean the game's over."

Dwalin kissed Nori, more of his worry with the idea of playing out his fantasy easing.

They both knew what they were getting into, and Nori knew how to make sure they knew how to stop if they needed to. It was all arranged, planned and agreed to. It wasn't so scary. Maybe that wouldn't make it as fun to play as it had been for Dwalin to imagine, but that was a bridge they could cross when they came to it. Maybe it _would_ be better as dirty talk and a fantasy, but Dwalin wanted to try it with Nori at least once.

"That works," Dwalin agreed. "When do you want to—"

"Nu-uh," Nori broke him off, grinning. "What kind of a thief would I be if my victim knew when I was going to strike? You want to wake up from a dead sleep already being robbed, don't you?"

Dwalin groaned and crushed his face into Nori's hair. Even the suggestion of it had his spent hammer twitching as it tried to harden again. "You'll be the death of me," he accused, even as he nodded.

Nori just laughed, and Dwalin couldn't help laughing with him.

One of these nights he was going to wake up to Nori making his favorite fantasy into a reality.

He had _no idea_ how he was going to be able to sleep, anticipating that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a link to the artwork for this chapter on tumblr:
> 
> https://stockinghedgehog.tumblr.com/post/166403177613/chapter-2-art-for-my-and-thorinsmuts-fic


	3. Burgled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori comes up with and execute the perfect plan to take _very_ good care of Dwalin, and satisfy all his desires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE be aware of the tags on this fic! Quite a few have been added for this final chapter. It contains a kink scene that, while negotiated and consensual, includes rape-play and knife-play with threats and may be very triggering. Please be gentle with yourselves and read with care!

There was a sound in Dwalin's room. He shifted over, not quite awake, when something closed tight around his wrist.

He yanked hard against it, still mostly asleep but more than capable of defending himself, but whatever had hold of him was far too strong for even his strength to break. The room was dark, but there was enough light to see the silhouette of a stranger kneeling on the edge of the bed. Dwalin snarled and swung at them with his free hand. They'd lept back, though, out of his range—even though Dwalin had thrown himself out of the bed to come after them. He ended up on his knees on the floor, at the end of his reach.

"Ha! You won't get the upper hand this time, soldier." A voice laughed—sharp and just a little cruel.

Not a stranger at all. It wasn't the tone Dwalin was used to him using, but the voice was obviously Nori's and Dwalin was now awake enough to recognize it. Nori had done something to disguise the familiarity of his shape, so Dwalin didn't recognize him immediately in the dim light.

Nori was not _supposed_ to be in Erebor. King Bard had borrowed him to help with security in Dale, and it was two days still until the earliest Dwalin could have expected him back. Of course, Nori had known that.

The first few days after Nori had agreed to play at robbing and taking advantage of him, Dwalin had barely been able to sleep anticipating it. Then for weeks after _that_ he'd woken at the slightest provocation. Now, when he was not expecting anything but to spend another night alone, Nori had stolen into his room and immobilized him in his sleep.

Dwalin growled again, swiping at Nori, but he couldn't stop a smile that likely bordered on silly from taking up residence on his face.

His wrist was captured with a thick shackle and chain, wrapped in fabric so it wouldn't clink, and attached to the heavy stone bed. With a good pickaxe, Dwalin would have been able to break the chain, or the frame of the bed that was carved directly into the stone of the mountain, but he had no weapons at all here. He was well and truly captured, chained up in nothing but his sleep pants, and Dwalin's heart was pounding hot—from anticipation rather than adrenaline now.

"Nice place you've gotten yourself," Nori sneered. "Good thick walls, so nobody's going to hear you shout, and all alone with your husband gone. You're all mine tonight."

Nori struck a match, brief flare of light to bring a rush of color and detail to the room. He paused, in the flickering light. In one hand, the lit match, the key to the shackle Dwalin was wearing spinning lazily around the index finger of his other hand. Nori's big hair was done up in a different shape, round instead of his usual peaks. The top half of his face was covered in a masquerade mask, black and faintly glittering, beaked like a raven, and he was dressed all in loose black like an actor playing a thief on the stage instead of the soft grays that would have actually disguised him in low light.

Nori could have kept going, _should_ have kept going, but he wasn't. He wasn't quite in the game, watching Dwalin as if waiting for his permission to continue.

To stop this here, all Dwalin would have to do was say Nori's name, but that was the last thing he wanted. To keep going, Dwalin just had to play the game as Nori had set it up.

"You'll not get away with this, thief!" he warned. He took another swipe in Nori's direction, nowhere near to being able to reach him. The effect might have been ruined by his smile, but Nori didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, but I already have," Nori taunted. The match went out, and he struck another to light a small candle on the dresser, much less bright than their usual lamps to keep the room dim and shadowed. "There's nothing you can do to stop me." He put the match out on his tongue, and snorted when Dwalin recoiled. Nori tossed the spent matches on the floor—utterly at odds with his usual care. As though he truly did not care about the cleanliness of this space. As though he was a stranger.

That detail, tiny as it was, had a spark of heat traveling through Dwalin's body. His sleep pants were thin and loose, but Nori did not choose to notice the state he was in. He simply smirked and put the key to Dwalin's shackle beside the candle.

"What shall I do first?" Nori asked, and Dwalin could not help his shudder at that. He had ideas about what Nori should do, far too many ideas to put any one of them first. Nori seemed to have a different idea entirely, because he turned _away_ from Dwalin to begin pawing through the stuff on the top of his dresser.

He picked up Dwalin's knuckledusters, turning them over in his hands before sneering and dropping them again. "Not worth the pot-iron they were made of," he dismissed.

Dwalin snarled and yanked on his shackled arm again on pure instinct. _No one_ insulted his weapons! He knew the quality of the steel wasn't up to Erebor's standards, but his knuckledusters were solid and without flaw and had seen him through the worst years of homeless wandering and the most terrible battles.

"Hit a nerve, did I?" Nori smirked behind his mask. "Wouldn't be so defensive if they were any good, would you? Keep your crummy mismatched knuckledusters, wear them around town and shake the chains to make them rattle if that makes you feel big and bad. They're worth nothing."

"Shut your lying mouth!" Dwalin growled. His face was hot, embarrassment squirming in his belly. He'd never been so insulted. He would have given a hands-on introduction to the structural integrity and utility of his knuckledusters to anyone who dared. And here he was, shackled to his own bed helpless to do anything but listen as his favorite tools were denigrated. He knew Nori didn't really think poorly of his weapons' quality, and yet he made it seem real.

It wasn't physical, how Dwalin had imagined, but he was utterly at Nori's 'thief' persona's mercy, and obviously no mercy would be granted him. That should not have made his hammer harden further between his legs, but it never had been good at listening to what it 'should' do.

That, also, was embarrassing, and Dwalin shifted on instinct to hide it from Nori.

Nori ignored Dwalin's outburst and began opening Dwalin's drawers, digging out his clothes and leaving them in disarray. "Come on, a nob like you's got to have _something_ of worth in his big fancy apartment." He made sure 'big' and 'fancy' sounded like insults. "Where have you got the goods hidden, hm?"

Nori laughed, harsh and cruel, as he held up an old set of Dwalin's long underwear. They had been patched a few times, and had grown holes through the patches, but he'd not yet gotten rid of them. Not after living his entire adult life as a refugee, a life when any little thing that could be reused meant another coin available for more pressing needs. He lived in wealth in Erebor, now, but Dwalin was not sure he would ever shake the habit. Nori, who had it just as bad as Dwalin if not worse, stuck his fingers through the holes to wave them mockingly at Dwalin before tossing the long underwear aside.

"What are you doing in this posh house, if you're wearing shite like that?" Nori asked. "Some hero of Erebor you are. Already squandered all your riches?"

It should not have been shameful to be thrifty. Dwalin _knew_ it wasn't and that Nori matched him in hating to waste coin, and yet he could not feel anything else beneath Nori's mockery.

Nori, who usually kept things so neat and tidy—a habit both from having grown up Dori's sibling, and from living a life where everything he owned had to be ready to pick up and run at a moment's notice—left Dwalin's clothes all hanging out of his drawers and turned to the one beside it. His own dresser.

"Maybe that husband of yours has something nice?" Nori mused. "Lace? Jewels? Maker knows the scrawny bastard can use any help he can get."

"Don't you dare insult him!" Dwalin spat. "My husband is among the best and bravest of dwarves. He may be slight, but you have no judgement of quality if you think he's anything but beautiful!"

Nori froze, for a brief moment, and the pleased little smile on his lips was his own. It was gone again very quickly, replaced by the thief persona's smirk, but Dwalin knew what he had seen. "Aww." The sound was sharply mocking, as Nori leaned against the dresser. "Got you properly whipped, hasn't he? Sickening."

Dwalin bared his teeth, yanking the end of his chain again, but Nori just shook his head and started opening his drawers up. He did not treat his own belongings any gentler than he had Dwalin's. He held things up and tossed them aside or pondered before shoving them haphazard back into the drawer. One very beautiful doublet of lavender crushed velvet with gold embroidery—a gift from Dori that Dwalin knew Nori hated wearing, no matter how good it made him look—Nori rolled up and shoved into a satchel at his side.

"Be a poor night's work, if that's the best you've got," Nori griped. "You sure you love that husband of yours? Shouldn't you be showering him in riches, if you're planning on keeping him? Or do you _like_ reminding him his common blood is so far below yours?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Dwalin growled. That wasn't it _at all_. Nori was never comfortable with looking wealthy, making a target of himself, or Dwalin would have dressed him up with more gold and jewels than King Thror in his heyday. Dwalin might be far closer related to the King than Nori was, but that meant nothing. They were both heroes, both relied upon by the crown. They were equals in all things, neither one of them above or below the other. They didn't need an overabundance of expensive gifts to prove that, or to try and make up an imbalance.

They'd talked about that, and both agreed it wasn't something they wanted. Dwalin hadn't considered how it might look from the outside, though. There couldn't really be dwarves who thought Nori dressed so simply because Dwalin didn't care for him, could there?

Nori gave Dwalin an extremely skeptical look. He held up one of Nori's favorite jackets—soft worn gray, plain with only the most basic adornment—as if to prove a point. As though he hadn't just been mocking Dwalin's clothes for the exact same simplicity. He tossed it aside, and then made a pleased sound as he pushed a few things out of the way and came up with Nori's deceptively simple-looking puzzle box.

The thief Nori was playing wouldn't be able to open it. It took Nori an entire week to figure out the trick of it and find the family beads Dwalin had concealed inside as a marriage proposal. The puzzle box held all of Nori's treasures, kept them safe, and Nori loved it.

"Oho, what's in here?" Nori asked. He hefted it, judging its weight against the wood it was made of, then shook it beside his ear to listen to the clink of its contents. A sharp smile played on his lips. "This is where you keep the good stuff." It wasn't a question.

He turned the box over and over, tapping at it with his fingers and prying at bits of it that seemed like they could be the catch. No, this box was far too well-made for a brief search to get it open, and Dwalin warmed with pride. He'd commissioned the very best craftspeople Erebor could offer to make it, and paid well to be sure it was utterly unique. Nori wouldn't have found it so satisfying to crack, otherwise.

It was like Nori. You thought you knew it at a glance, a plain wooden box. All its beauty and complexity was hidden on the inside.

Nori had taken his time, teasing out the box's secret. The thief he was playing didn't have the luxury of that patience. He growled under his breath and drew a knife, flipping it in the air to switch his grip. He swing it pommel-first toward the puzzle box, fast and hard.

"No!" Dwalin lunged against the end of his chain again, voice breaking on the ragged shout. The thief couldn't break the puzzle box, he _couldn't_. It was far too precious for that.

Nori pulled his blow, just shy of hitting the box and shattering it apart. He flashed his teeth, thin and sharp beneath his bird mask. "Oh?" he crooned, soft and mocking. "You _care_ what I do to this box? Don't want me damaging it?"

"You can't break it," Dwalin begged. "Not his puzzle box."

"Ha!" Nori tapped the box with the knife pommel, and Dwalin flinched with each quiet knock. "I _can't_ break it, you say? I can do anything I want, nob."

Dwalin's body flushed hot, hammer pulsing hard between his legs, even as his hand shook. "Take anything of mine you want, but don't… not that. Please," he begged. Nori had him well and truly powerless, here. It was not a physical fight, _that_ Dwalin could have won easily, but Nori knew exactly what pressure would make Dwalin crumble.

"What I _want_ is in this box," Nori said, voice hard. His eyes glittered, faint and strange behind his mask. "So either I break it open and take whatever I want, or you open it up for me and I'll _think_ about leaving it intact when I'm done. How about that?"

"No," Dwalin breathed. That was too cruel a bargain—forced to give away Nori's prized jewels, with no guarantee that the box wouldn't be damaged anyway.

Nori shrugged. "Your choice." His arm came up, gathering momentum for the downswing that would smash the box to bits.

"I'll do it!" Dwalin reached as far as he could toward the box, not nearly close enough to reach it, voice shaking and ragged. He could not bear to see Nori's puzzle box broken, or even threatened. It meant far too much, and he was helpless to protect it. The only thing he could do here was exactly what the thief wanted him to—and hope for mercy. His eyes squeezed shut tight, as though he could hide from the humiliation. "I'll open it for you. Just… please."

"Ha!" Nori snorted. "Too easy." He took two steps closer to Dwalin, still keeping his body out of grabbing range, and handed the box toward him. He pulled it back, just out of reach, when Dwalin tried to take it. Nori's face was hard, almost unrecognizable behind his mask, when Dwalin made himself glance up at it. "No funny business," he warned. He flipped the knife again in his spare hand, the blade glinting in the candlelight. He didn't have to _speak_ a threat to communicate it.

Dwalin was unarmed and chained, and Nori had a knife, and somehow despite the shame and embarrassment, or because of it, Dwalin was so hard and aroused his entire groin ached. He shifted again to better conceal the bulge of his hard hammer and nodded, sharp and brief. Nori handed the puzzle box over and stepped back, watching him like a hawk.

The puzzle box was not easy to open, even knowing the trick of it. A pinch, a push, a tug, and a little knob that had been previously perfectly concealed in the wood grain popped up. Dwalin pushed it back in immediately, and a tiny click let him know he'd completed the first step of unlocking the box. There were three more, after that, and when the little knob popped up again from a completely different set of actions he gave it a half-turn, and the lid popped open.

"Here," Nori snapped. "Give it here! Now!" He stepped forward, blade glinting in his hand, and Dwalin handed the box over. Nori chuckled to himself as he set it on the top of the dresser beside the little candle, so Dwalin had a clear view as he pried the lid open.

Nori whistled, low and impressed, as he eyed the ornate interior of the box. "Look at that. This night's not a complete waste after all," he purred. He pulled the little drawers all the way out of the box, dumping their contents in a messy pile on the top of the dresser. He picked up Nori's rings, the heavy jeweled ones he wore when he needed to look impressive in the royal court. "These'll fetch a pretty penny," he judged, and put them in the satchel.

That was fine. They were pretty, but easily replaced. Then Nori reached jewelry that actually meant something, and it was not fine at all. He picked up Nori's body chains—delicate gold chain woven like lace and set with tiny amethysts and emeralds, both of their colors. Nori had confided in Dwalin how he liked the look, but had never been able to afford even simple jewelry, and Dwalin had commissioned the piece just for him. It was light enough it didn't show when he wore it beneath his clothes, which he did sometimes when he wanted to feel special, but it was really meant to be worn alone. It was designed to accent the beauty of Nori's bare body, and it did so wonderfully.

Nori held the chains up to the light, smirking. "Ooh, naughty! I'll have to break this one down, to sell it," he mused to himself. "Pry out the jewels, separate out the individual lengths of chain…"

Dwalin growled and yanked on his chained arm, absolutely futile, and Nori laughed as he dropped the chains into his satchel. "Keep struggling, soldier," he urged, deliberately sweeping his eyes up Dwalin's half-naked body, sending yet another wave of arousal coursing through him. "It's a good look on you."

Nori grabbed another handful of jewelry, Dwalin couldn't tell exactly what, and dribbled it into his satchel slowly through his fingers. "Listen to that," he purred, cocking his head to listen the the chime of metal and jewels. "Little stolen bells. Best sound in the world." He emptied out the last of the puzzle box drawers, and held aloft the final piece.

"No!" Dwalin growled, but this, also, was useless.

"A family piece?" Nori mused, turning the brooch over. "Look at the size of that amethyst!" The cracked stone glittered in the faint light, set in silver and framed with small garnets. It was one of only a handful of jewels his family had left. Dori had a few very ornate hair pins, Ori a pair of rings, and Nori had the brooch. They'd found them in the ruins of their family home, just a few small pieces—the last of their family's jewels, just as they were the last remnant of their once-proud house. The brooch had been painstakingly restored, and meticulously cared for since.

It was Nori's most prized jewel, though it was far from the richest piece he owned. Its history meant far more than its value.

"No way to sell a stone that big, it would get recognized," Nori complained, and Dwalin nearly relaxed, thinking it safe, before he continued. "A hammer blow should shatter it the rest of the way. Bet a good jeweler could give me a dozen cut stones from the pieces."

"That's all he has!" Dwalin begged. "The only piece he has from his family."

"And now it's mine." Nori tossed the brooch carelessly into the air, caught it, and dropped it into the clinking satchel. "Maybe I'll take the box too," he mused, eyeing it and ignoring Dwalin's struggles. "Make a little coin from the pieces, once I've broken it down…"

Dwalin snarled through his teeth, heart breaking and utterly unable to protect anything. Nori was too far out of his reach. He could not touch him, but he _could_ grab one of the decorative embroidered cushions Dori had gifted them—the ones that always ended up on the floor beside the bed instead of on it—and send it whistling through the air at Nori's head.

Nori stumbled, his horrible recitation broken off in shock, and he turned on Dwalin with his jaw clenched and eyes blazing behind his mask.

"Once I get my hands on you…" Dwalin growled, both hands flexing.

Nori tisked behind his teeth, the soft sound utterly at odds with the hardness of his expression. "You misunderstand _just how little_ power you have here, nob." He lifted the strap of the satchel over his head, dropping it to the floor with a quiet chime from all the jewelry within. The knife flashed in his hand. "I can do _anything_ I want."

Nori sprang on Dwalin, striking as quick as a snake. Dwalin swung for him, tried to grab him, but he was not fast enough. The edge of Nori's blade was pressed tight to his throat, Nori's grip like iron on his wrist. Dwalin froze, body going lax on instinct like submitting in a sparring match, but Nori was not playing by sparring rules.

"That's right," Nori purred, pressing the blade even harder into Dwalin's neck. His breath smelled like licorice and rose petals, rather than the familiar ginger he usually chewed to sweeten his breath. A stranger's breath, but he knew Dwalin well enough to keep out of headbutting range.

Nori pushed Dwalin's hand down and back. "Hold the bed frame," he ordered, and Dwalin's fingers fumbled until they closed tight on the unyielding stone. His body was shaking, arousal throbbing through his body. Nori was in control now, completely. "Let go, for even a second, and I'll gut you," Nori warned, horribly quiet. "Slit your throat like a slaughtered sheep and leave your sorry corpse here for your husband to find."

Dwalin's entire body shuddered, mind recoiling from the horrible thought even as his body arched back to bare himself further to Nori's blade. A small sound left him, nowhere near a word, more of a whimper.

For a brief moment Nori's face softened. He let go of Dwalin's wrist to gently cup the side of his face, though the knife never left Dwalin's throat. "All right?" he asked, the whisper sincere and familiar and completely belonging to the husband Dwalin loved. His Nori, checking on him to be sure he was enjoying himself. Keeping him safe.

Dwalin managed a small nod, and the sneer returned to Nori's face. "Good little soldier," he purred. "Finally know your place." He pulled Dwalin's beard, tipping his head back even further before he let it go.

It was patronizing, and embarrassing, and even more embarrassing how Dwalin's body responded to the barbed praise. "Filthy thief," he groaned.

"Oh, I haven't _begun_ to get filthy with you." Nori licked his narrow lips, contemplative behind his mask, as if deciding what exactly he wanted to do to Dwalin. He could do anything, anything at all. Dwalin was completely at his mercy. "Hold still," Nori reminded, a warning as he slowly drew the knife down Dwalin's throat.

Nori drew a thin sharp line across Dwalin's neck, and then another starting at his left shoulder to trace the top of his bare chest just below the collarbone. The edge of the blade stung, like it was opening his skin. Dwalin couldn't see, with his head tipped back so far, and Nori dug the knife in harder with a warning growl and pushed his chin back up when he tried to look down.

Dwalin just had to trust that Nori wouldn't really cut him, no matter what it felt like. Nori, who never kept a blade on his person that couldn't split a hair. He flinched when Nori began another cut, throat making a little 'nn' sound in protest, but did not move. His free hand clenched tight on the bed frame, holding as instructed, and the fingers of his shackled hand wrapped themselves around the chain that captured him. He was spread out between both points, and Nori chuckled darkly.

"There's nothing you can do," Nori purred. "You're mine, to do whatever I want to. I could carve you apart." He kept the knife on Dwalin's skin, describing stinging arcs along the shapes of his muscles as his other hand began to wander across Dwalin's body. "Got a little gold here, don't you?" His fingers found the ring through Dwalin's nipple as the sharp point of the blade came to rest just left of center on Dwalin's chest. Poised to pierce his heart.

Nori flicked the ring once, twice, making Dwalin's body jolt faintly each time, and then hooked his fingertip through it and began to slowly pull. The sensation transitioned from light and teasing, through to pleasure and then beyond to an ache both good and bad and then sharp pain. Dwalin hissed through his teeth, core tensing as he fought to hold still. Arching his back to relieve the pressure on his pierced nipple would push the blade into his chest. He could not fight back, could not make it stop, could only endure what Nori chose to do to him. Nori was watching him like a hawk, breath quick and light and mask-shadowed eyes drilling down into him.

Just when Dwalin thought he could take no more, that he had to somehow pull himself together enough to speak Nori's name and end the game—and he did not want to end the game, he did _not_ —Nori released the ring. Dwalin gasped in a shaking breath, shoulders slumping in relief. Nori was not done with him, though. He moved on to Dwalin's other nipple. He touched it, softly, and flashed his teeth when Dwalin flinched.

"I could tear these right out of your skin." Nori hooked his finger through the gold ring, teasing a bit before he began that same slow, torturous pull. "And you'd hold still. No choice but to let me, if you don't want a blade in your heart. I could do anything at all to you."

It hurt. Hammers and coal, it _hurt_ . There was a whine somewhere in the back of Dwalin's throat, a plea for mercy on his tongue, but neither made it through his clenched teeth. His arms strained between the chain and the bed frame. Helpless. His whole body pulsed in sympathetic pain, and arousal, like he was all one neverending nerve that felt _everything_. His head thrashed back and forth, the only part of himself he could move, and Nori released his nipple ring.

Dwalin breathed again, blinking fast to keep his eyes clear of tears he would not shed. His nipples both throbbed, points of heat on his chest. He was _aware_ of his nipple piercings, feeling the heavy gold rings through his flesh how he hadn't since they were freshly done. A line of sweat trickled down the side of his face, to match the wetness beneath his arms and down his back.

"That would make a pretty picture," Nori mused, as he resumed drawing burning lines on Dwalin's chest with the knife. "Big warrior, blood running down your chest. Would you cry for me?" He flicked one of Dwalin's abused nipples, brief but sharp, startling a quick 'hmph' from Dwalin's throat.

"You bastard," Dwalin growled. He was panting, as though he was fighting a mighty battle, and all he was doing was holding still. All he _could_ do was hold still.

"Ha!" Nori bit out, sharp and sarcastic. "I can _see_ how much you're hating this." He leaned in closer, hand closing around Dwalin's stone-hard hammer. He pumped it, one long slow stroke through the thin material of Dwalin's sleep pants. Nori started to say something else, but Dwalin was already gone.

His climax crashed over him like an avalanche, an earthquake. Potent pleasure blinded him, a long ragged cry breaking from his throat as his hips arched up off the floor and jerked with the pulses of orgasm.

The knife was still against Dwalin's chest, pinning him in place, and Nori was laughing. It was Nori's own laughter, bright and surprised, but he was silent again by the time Dwalin slumped back down—spent already, to his utter shame. Somehow, Dwalin's hands hadn't let go of the chain or the bed frame. He was still holding on, like his life was forfeit to the thief if he didn't.

"Now that's useless," Nori spat, disgusted, as he released Dwalin's hammer.

"I'm sorry." Dwalin hadn't meant for the words to come out aloud, and certainly not for them to sound so small and broken.

"Husband of yours must not put out, if you're that pent up." Nori grabbed Dwalin by the hair at the back of his neck, pulling his head back from where it had slumped forward. "Guess I'll have to fuck your mouth instead, won't I?"

It wasn't a question. The tone Nori spoke it in wouldn't let it be one, but maybe his brief hesitation after it did. Question or not, Dwalin was nodding. He could do that. He could use his mouth. He could be obedient, be _good_ , and do what the thief who held him captive wanted.

Nori exhaled, almost a moan, and stood to begin loosening the ties of his flowing black pants. "Don't even think of trying anything," he warned. "You know what I'll do, if you try?"

"Aye." It would not go well for him, Dwalin knew. Not with Nori so quick with his knife. Not chained to his bed and already defeated.

"Say it," Nori urged, quiet and intense. "I want to hear you say it."

Dwalin opened his mouth, but the words would not come out, and he closed it again with fresh heat pounding in his cheeks. Nori cocked his head to the side, very much like the bird his mask was made to resemble. His lips thinned in displeasure, hands pausing in undoing his clothes.

"K… Kill me." Dwalin shut his eyes against the words, but he forced them through his teeth.

Nori did moan for that, low and half a growl. He had his loose pants open when Dwalin glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Nori had a leather harness on under his pants instead of smallclothes, the one he used when he wanted to fuck Dwalin, but with none of his 'cocks' of leather or wood in place to do so. He flicked open the quick-release buckles and tossed it aside to bare himself instead. His folds were flushed pink, slick and wet peeking from within his curls.

"That's right," he purred, moving to straddle Dwalin. "So you keep holding the bed, and I'd better not feel any teeth. Now suck."

The scent and taste of Nori was unfamiliar, when he positioned himself where he wanted to be over Dwalin's face. It varied, naturally, but there was a note to his muskiness Dwalin did not recognize. A stranger's scent. A stranger's flavor, when Dwalin licked between his lower lips to part him and find the firm little knob of his hammer.

A stranger, a thief, grinding himself on Dwalin's face. Taking what he wanted. Dwalin moaned as he was used.

Nori answered with a high laugh. "Wouldn't your husband love to walk in on this," he teased. "Look at you, so sweet, letting a common thief have you."

Dwalin burned with shame at the thought of being caught like this, but he had no words to answer even if his mouth had been free. He could only gasp breaths when he could, all but drowning in the creamy slick of Nori's pleasure. He could only suck on Nori's hammer, flick his tongue up and over and around it to bring the thief pleasure. His neck was craned too far back, the grind of Nori's groin against his mouth keeping him from adjusting his position. His arms and fingers ached from the strength of his grip and holding on so long. The stone bed frame behind him dug into his back, where he was bent backward over it. Pain did not matter. Discomfort did not matter. None of it mattered.

He existed for Nori's pleasure now, and nothing more.

Nori's thighs tensed, squeezing around Dwalin's head. "There," he gasped. "There!" and then he, too, had no more words and growled little yips through his teeth as his body arched and bucked in climax. Dwalin had no free hand to hold him in place, to support him and give him yet more pleasure. It was all he wanted, and he could not. When Nori's body jolted itself out of range, Dwalin could not follow.

Nori stumbled away from Dwalin, knees weak. He held on to the dresser to keep upright, face flushed behind his mask and clothes in disarray. "Well," he said, a little breathless, and laughed slightly. "I don't think there's much else I could take, here."

He was all the way across the room from Dwalin, turning away from him to put his clothes back together, and that was not all right. It was completely wrong. "No." Dwalin's whole body strained forward against his grip on his chain and the bed frame. He'd been told to hold on, he could not let go, but he _could not_ be so far away from Nori. "Please," he begged. " _Please_ , Nori."

Nori tore the bird mask from his face, throwing it aside as he scrambled back across the room to kneel beside Dwalin. "We're done, love," he promised in his own voice, gentle hands petting Dwalin's shoulders. "You can let go now, Dwalin. We're done. You were so good."

He was good? He'd tried, with all his strength, to be good; Nori's judgement shone like gold in his heart, and Dwalin pushed his face into Nori's neck to get _closer_ to him. It felt good, felt _right_. Nori's touch was almost overwhemingly kind, just soft and gentle. His clever fingers teased around Dwalin's hand on the bed frame, urging his stiff digits open. Moving them after so long hurt just as much as it offered relief, and Nori gently lifted Dwalin's hand to his lips to kiss it before settling it around his waist.

The smallest gesture, and it was enough to make tears prickle in Dwalin's eyes. His inhale was shaky as he hesitantly pulled Nori closer. And he was allowed. He was allowed to hold Nori close, to squeeze his husband tight in his arms.

"There you go," Nori purred, soothingly rocking them back and forth. "You're all right. I'm right here, love."

His other hand was still chained, though, when he tried to hold Nori with that hand too. Dwalin did not realize at first that the agonized whimper at this discovery came from himself. He needed. He _needed_ and he couldn't.

"I have you," Nori promised, quickly palming a second key out of his sleeve to unlock the shackle and set Dwalin free. He made a sympathetic sound as he rubbed Dwalin's aching wrist, but that pain didn't matter. It hardly registered beneath the pleasure of the touch. That Nori _cared_ for him.

Nori kissed Dwalin's wrist, and then helped him settle his stiff arm around his waist. Dwalin could hold all of Nori's slight body close now, how he needed so desperately. Nori was so good to him. So good.

"I love you." The words were pulled unbidden from Dwalin's heart, but he had no more the desire than the ability to take them back. His whole body was shaking as he held his Nori, his husband, his love who was so good to him. "I love you. I _love_ you."

"I love you too," Nori promised, and those words were better than all the treasures of Erebor. Nori rubbed Dwalin's back between his shoulder blades, a slow and soothing circle. "You were so good. Do you want to get up on the bed to cuddle?"

Dwalin almost answered no, but then the thought of getting to cuddle with Nori somewhere far more comfortable than the floor sounded like a good one and he nodded. "Aye."

Nori pulled away, but not too far. He gently helped Dwalin to his feet—his knees were stiff and he felt drained, as weak as a kitten—and then into the soft blankets and pillows of the bed. They ended up tangled together, arms and legs intertwined, and it felt perfect.

Or so Dwalin thought, until Nori asked if he wanted to be naked together. It was easy for Dwalin to shimmy out of his soiled sleep pants, but less so for Nori to get out of his 'thief' garb. Dwalin's need to hold him complicated things, slowed them down, but eventually Nori did get naked. Dwalin lay with his head cradled on Nori's soft chest, while Nori played with his hair and stroked his back. _That_ was truly perfect, especially with Nori murmuring love to him and occasionally pressing sweet little pecks of kisses to the bald top of his head.

The frantic _need_ that had driven Dwalin quieted, and he basked. He came back to himself gradually. He felt calm, all the way down into his bones. Grounded, like he was a part of the very stone of Erebor. Everything fell into place, himself here with Nori, like pieces of dryset stone placed by a master craftsman so they slotted together without a seam.

They breathed together for a time, close and quiet, before Dwalin glanced up at Nori and asked, "I did well?" It was begging, but he wanted to hear Nori say it again.

"You were amazing," Nori answered, shaking his head and smiling down at him. "You took everything I gave out, did everything I told you to. You were perfect."

Dwalin squirmed a bit at the praise, cheeks warm, but he knew Nori would not shame him for the childish reaction.

"And me?" Nori asked, and there was a faint tightness around the corners of his mouth to indicate worry. "How did I do? Was it everything you wanted?

Dwalin could not stop himself from stretching up to kiss that worry from Nori's mouth. The unfamiliar licorice was gone, leaving nothing but the taste of Nori, and Dwalin reveled in it. "Everything," he promised. "Everything and more. I did not expect it to be _so_ …" he didn't even have words to describe.

"It's a lot," Nori agreed. His bright hazel eyes smiled into Dwalin's as he cupped the side of his face, combed his fingers light and gentle through his beard, and then stole another kiss from his lips. "Do you want tea?" he asked.

"No." Dwalin dropped his bodyweight back on top of Nori, nuzzling against the softness of his chest. "Don't want to leave the bed."

Nori laughed, kissing him on the top of the head. "I've got a thermos in the satchel, if you can bear to let me go for a moment. Hot tea and sweet biscuits?" he tempted.

"In bed?" Dwalin asked, incredulous. Nori was normally adamant about the 'no food in bed' rule.

"In bed, for this very special occasion," Nori agreed. Dwalin could hear the smile in his voice, and kissed him one last time before setting him free. Nori stroked a hand affectionately all the way down Dwalin's back, and then gave his arse a firm squeeze, before abandoning the bed for his satchel. He ignored the main pocket, where he'd stashed everything he 'stole', pulling an old army thermos with two cups and a tied napkin out of side pockets.

Dwalin heaved himself up to arrange the pillows so they could sit comfortably against the headboard. He was still feeling a bit weak and shaky. Tea and biscuits to regain his strength was a good idea, and Dwalin was once again grateful that Nori knew how to play these kind of games—how to take care of him both during and afterward.

The tea was rosehip and chamomile, liberally sweetened with honey. The biscuits were soft and chewy, full of oats and currants. Best of all, Nori was cuddled close against Dwalin's side as they enjoyed their midnight snack.

Nori wrapped up the leftovers in the napkin and dropped it off the side of the bed, and Dwalin scooted down to lay his head on Nori's chest again. That illusion of being smaller felt good. Nori touched Dwalin's shoulder, his chest, and then gently down to his nipple.

"These all right?" Nori asked. "I wasn't too rough?"

Dwalin shivered through at the soft touch. His nipples were tender, but not really painful any more. "They're fine," he promised. "I… I wouldn't have wanted it harder, but I _liked_ it." His face was hot, embarrassment squirming in his belly at the admission. "Hammers and tongs, _why_ would I like any of it?"

"I don't know," Nori admitted. "But you're not the only dwarf who likes that kind of play, and I've made my peace with how much I enjoy doing it. So long as we both like it, we're not doing anything bad, are we?"

"We're not," Dwalin agreed, after a pause to think. Put like that, it seemed fine. Why wouldn't they do things they both enjoyed, even if it was a bit unusual? They fell into a comfortable silence, until Dwalin's wandering gaze fell to Nori's discarded harness hanging off the side of the bed. "You wanted to fuck me," he observed, chagrined. "I'm sorry I couldn't last for you…"

"I was prepared for a variety of possibilities," Nori brushed it off loftily. That didn't much help, and maybe he realized that because his voice was softer when he continued. "Don't apologize. It was a wonderful complement. My ego is so inflated I may not fit through doors." Dwalin laughed, just as Nori must have planned. Nori continued, clever fingers tracing shapes on Dwalin's chest. "I did think about fucking you anyway. Have you hold the headboard with both hands while I pounded you 'till you cried, all overstimulated and shaking. Mmm."

It would have been agonizing, so close after his climax, and Dwalin's whole body twisted at the thought. Both fear, and a tiny perverse spark of desire. He shook his head.

"Yeah, figured it would hurt too much," Nori agreed easily. "Your mouth is always good, and I wanted you to _like_ all of it."

"I did," Dwalin assured him. "So much." Nori made a happy purring sound, pushing a little harder with his fingertips on Dwalin's chest. Dwalin looked down to watch him tracing the few faint pink lines on his chest. It had felt so much like Nori was cutting him in the moment, but the marks were already almost gone. "You made if feel so _real_ ," Dwalin observed. "All of it. You even smelled and tasted like a stranger."

"Did I?" Nori asked, and then laughed. "I guess I was eating a lot of fish, in Dale? That part wasn't on purpose. The rest, yeah."

"You should have gone to the stage," Dwalin told him, yawning a bit. His interrupted sleep was trying to catch up to him.

"Heh, Amad would have been so proud!" Nori preened. "No, I'd rather keep my acting for _private_ audiences." He tweaked Dwalin's ear affectionately.

"I want to be your audience," Dwalin said, maybe a bit too urgently. "We'll do it again, sometimes?"

Nori laughed and tugged Dwalin up to kiss him. "Oh, I'm sure there's a certain thief who'll be robbing you again, when you least expect it. He knows an easy mark when he sees one."

Dwalin groaned at the delicious promise and tease. He wrapped his arms around Nori and rolled them so he was on his back with Nori laying on his chest. It was wonderfully close and cozy, and Dwalin yawned again.

"Let me blow the candle out," Nori said. "We've got a few hours to sleep before morning."

"In a minute." Dwalin let his eyes close. He would let Nori go, and climb under the covers to resume his sleep, but for this moment there was nothing he wanted more than to lay skin against skin with this beloved dwarf, so different from himself, who could not have complemented him better if they had been shaped together like pieces of a puzzle. His wonderful husband. His Nori.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIN
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading! We've had a lot of fun with this fic and it's been a pleasure to read all your comments throughout, and we hope this final chapter was a satisfying conclusion. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts! Drop us a comment below, or we can be found on tumblr as Thorinsmut and Hattedhedgehog, respectively.  
> <3  
> TS and Hattie


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